Chapter 2 #3
“I’m not so sure. She’s so anxious about her job all the time, I don’t think she could manage kids too.
I think Stef and Liz feel the same way. Liz is a lot more interested in her job than having children, and they think the planet is too screwed up and overcrowded to bring more humans into the world.
” Stefano was thirty-one, and Liz was five years older at thirty-six.
Her biological clock not only wasn’t ticking, it wasn’t making a sound.
Neither of them wanted children so far. And Eugenia felt it was entirely up to them.
All of Eugenia’s children were so different.
None of them had taken on the challenges she had, with a mammoth business and career and five children.
She wasn’t sure anymore if she would do it again, but she was glad she had.
She hadn’t even remotely guessed what a huge stress it could be if something went wrong with the business.
She hadn’t foreseen it, few had. Nor had she understood at twenty-three or even twenty-nine what an overwhelming responsibility it was being the parent of five adults with problems and needs and crises of their own, with only one parent to guide them, because of an absentee father who was only interested in going to parties and playing prince for his entire life.
She had taken a lot on, and managed it, but she was paying a high price for it in the quality of her life now, which Daphne seemed to understand better than the others.
She worried about her mother and all she was carrying, and she didn’t know the half of it, but she could guess.
The others thought of themselves more than they did their mother.
That was the nature of children until their parents got too old to take care of themselves and became a burden to them—a time in her life that Eugenia dreaded, and had never thought of until now, especially if she lost everything and couldn’t support herself, which seemed like a real possibility.
She was going to do everything humanly possible to avoid having that happen.
Daphne left shortly before lunchtime, in order to have lunch with Phillip and Tucker, as she did on most days. She had an exceedingly pleasant, low-stress life. She couldn’t wait to see her siblings that evening.
After she left, Eugenia checked her emails and answered the most pressing ones.
She was trying to buy more denim, which was hard to get, in case the pieces in her show were a hit and she got a lot of orders for them.
She knew more about denim now than she ever had.
Japanese denim was considered the most high-quality and desirable, with the most body to it.
She had put several denim pantsuits in the next show, which were exactly what women wanted now, and hers had a high fashion look.
Haute couture jeans. Eugenia smiled as she finished her emails and went to meet the chef she had hired for the week, who turned out to be an enterprising young Frenchwoman who was delighted to hear the list of favorite meals Eugenia wanted for them.
She was going to prepare lunch and dinner every day, except for the nights they went out.
Eugenia took a quick swim in the pool, and was just getting out and drying off when she heard a car on the gravel driveway, and looked over a hedge to see a black Cadillac SUV stop in front of the house, and a chic young woman jumped out.
She had long blond hair like Eugenia, and was wearing head-to-toe black, with jeans and a black cotton blouse, and carrying a large black alligator bag.
Eloise looked very French and she was wearing a wide gold cuff on each arm.
She was smoking, and looked pale and nervous, but she was undeniably fashionable and very beautiful.
Eugenia called out to her and ran to meet her, wrapped in a towel, with her hair wet, and Eloise grinned broadly and gave her an enormous hug when they collided.
“How was the flight?” her mother asked her, so pleased to see her.
They had only seen each other once during the pandemic, and the week together would be a gift.
Eloise had been very close to her mother growing up, but had lived in Paris now for eight years, since she had graduated from Parsons, like her mother, and in Eloise’s case, she moved to Paris and stayed there.
She had been working for Balenciaga designing streetwear and had made a name for herself.
She and Eugenia usually saw each other during Paris Fashion Week, but there had been none for almost two years now.
Eloise was rail-thin, like a model herself, looked the most similar to her mother of all the children, and was proud of it.
She admired her mother and thought she was talented and gorgeous.
She was a hard act to follow, particularly since they were in the same field.
She wasn’t jealous of her mother. Eugenia was her role model.
“I slept the whole way. It’s been crazy. I was exhausted,” a standard response for Eloise. Her life was constantly high pressure, working for a major luxury brand.
Eugenia showed her to her room, next to her own, and the driver brought up her four bags, and Eugenia already knew that every outfit in them would be black and killer chic and very fashion-forward. Eloise’s face clouded immediately as soon as they were alone.
“I think they’re going to fire me, Mom,” she said, on the verge of tears.
“Business has been terrible in Europe until they started letting Americans into the country again a few weeks ago. Our stores in Asia have been saving us, and keeping us afloat. But they’re talking about severe cutbacks, and I’m sure I’ll be on that list.” Eugenia smiled, looking at her.
Eloise was even taller than her mother and a beautiful young woman, despite the anxious expression. Eugenia had heard it all before.
“You’ve been saying that since they hired you. They need you. They’re not going to fire you.” Eugenia was sure of it. Fashion was a cutthroat business, but Eloise had a huge talent and her job was secure.
“This time I think they are. I hate the new director of marketing and he hates me. He says my vision isn’t global enough, and too traditional.”
“They’ll probably fire him before they fire you.
Can you try to relax for a week?” Eugenia asked her gently, and Eloise nodded hesitantly.
She lived on the edge of her nerves, and she was anxious every hour of every day in an extremely stressful job.
She paid a high price for her success. She hardly ever had dates, and most of the time, when she did, she canceled them.
She worked nights and weekends, smoked a lot, and had no life except work.
Eugenia wanted so much more for her than the narrow life she led, but it was hard to pry Eloise out of her office and away from her drawing board and desk.
“Are you hungry?” She knew the answer before she said the words.
Eloise was never hungry, she was too nervous to eat, and her image of the ideal female body was based on the models she saw every day, who all looked like they were starving.
Eloise was as thin and undernourished as they were.
“I ate on the plane,” she said, which Eugenia knew was a lie to get her mother off her back. “Who’s here?”
“You’re the first.”
Eloise and Daphne were the closest of the sisters and Eloise couldn’t wait to see her next younger sister. “No babies yet?” she asked, smiling.
“Not for another five weeks, unless the twins come early. The poor thing is enormous. She can’t wait to see you, she’s coming over tonight. The others should all be here by dinnertime.”
After she settled in, they went to sit by the pool, with Eloise in a black bikini that showed off her remarkable body.
She went to the gym at five in the morning before work every day, and as thin as she was, every inch of her was toned and sleek.
She was thirty, and had the body of a twenty-year-old.
They were chatting about the current trends, and her mother’s experimental line of daywear in the next show, when another SUV pulled up, and a tall, very handsome Black man with broad shoulders and an athlete’s build got out.
He was strikingly attractive, and Eugenia’s youngest daughter, Sofia, got out right behind him.
She looked tiny next to him and they were talking and laughing.
Sofia was the smallest of the sisters with very dark brown hair, porcelain white skin, and green eyes.
She was wearing an army surplus camouflage vest with cutoff jeans and military boots she’d gotten at Goodwill.
Her hair was in a braid down her back, as Daphne wore hers.
All Eugenia knew about Sofia’s date was that he was a doctor where she worked, and he looked far more respectable than she did. He looked like a Ralph Lauren ad.
Eloise and Eugenia walked toward them with welcoming smiles.
Sofia’s companion was wearing black jeans and a black T-shirt, with loafers.
Sofia looked like a runaway teenager he had picked up as a hitchhiker.
She was twenty-six years old, and a licensed nurse practitioner and midwife.
They both worked at a medical center in Tennessee, which sent teams of personnel into the poorest areas of Appalachia, and Sofia loved her work.
Eugenia was impressed that she had brought a man home to her family, knowing he would be the object of the intense scrutiny of her sisters.
She had never brought anyone home before, or even said who she was dating. This was a first.